The train this week is leaving for sapville. All aboard!

I started with the idea of someone realizing that the "I" in "I love you" had changed while repeating that phrase over time and it kinda went full mopey from there. I really gotta write an upbeat positive tune next week - you'd think "simple and sweet" woulda been the one, but whelp, here we are.

****

Don't like to think what I am leaving behind
It's easier that way
If I tell you that I'm sleeping fine
It's easier that way
I've been falling all to pieces
I've been thinking you've been doing the same
Don't like to think what I am leaving behind
But it's better than staying this same

It's all coming down

Cause I don't recognize me
I've been wondering who am I
In I love you

You've been talking about growing old
I feel smaller now every day
Chipping stone from a statue
I've been wondering what will remain

Cause I don't recognize me
I've been wondering who am I
In I love you
I don't know who loves you

We could keep things sweet and simple
But when we put it like that 
It's hard but what I'm leaving behind
Is getting hollower every day

It's not that I don't wanna stay
It's who'd be left in my place

It's all coming down

Cause I don't recognize me
I've been wondering who am I
In I love you
I don't know who loves you

I've been wondering why
I love you
I've been wondering when
I should be leaving soon, should be leaving soon
I've been wondering where
I'll be going to
I've been wondering what who I used to be would do

Sweet and Simple - Song a Week 2020, Week 42

First three lines are Robert Frost's. 

*****

Some say the world will end in fire
Some say the world will in ice
From what I've tasted of desire
And while I'm sorry for the funeral pyre

Those who hold with fire pray
The rain will come and douse the flame
Forgetting hardened hearts of man
Who hold the oceans in their hand

Fire's a mind all of it's own
In time it gets out of control
So when it gets too late to halt
It feels like the fire's fault

But when the world will end in ice
Someone has to make a choice
To lay down in a wintered spring
And to take the blame for everything

So walk the world at the end of days
Past histories that leaving made
The world is full of heroes, burned
And villains into statues turned

While we all can learn from time
And say that we would want the ice
In time we are revealed as liars
Everyone would take the fires

Fire And Ice  - Song a Week 2020, Week 44

I'd like to thank myself for designing my own artworks now because it's the most relaxing thing ever.

Lyrics:

I swear I'll throw my phone across the room
straight at you
if I have to talk to someone new.
I'll punch the walls like I'm a wrecking ball
if I have to pick up just one call
because it's never you. Why is it never you?

And now I'm boring myself to death
as I go from "you're nice" to "please leave me alone"
"Come here" "or maybe just don't"
Hope I'm not wasting my last breath
as I go from "it's fine" to "God this is the worst
of times, it just won't work"

I wanna scream my lungs out to the wind
because you're just so damn close.
But we grow apart every single time
I look down to the floor.
Because it's (your eyes, your smile, your voice, it's just) just you, and every little thing that you do.

And now I'm boring myself to death
as I go from "you're nice" to "please leave me alone"
"Come here" "or maybe just don't"
Hope I'm not wasting my last breath
as I go from "it's fine" to "God this is the worst
of times, it just won't work"

(Never, never, never, never, never you)

And it pushes all my buttons, from black to red,
frozen white and leaves in shades of grey.
It disconnects my thoughts from both of my hands,
pours wine on my glass, up at 3 am.

(You're nice but please leave me alone
Come here or maybe just don't.
It's fine but God, this is the worst of times)
It just won't work.

Why is it never, never, never, never, never you?
(Your eyes, your smile, your voice, it's just)

Never You

Meow Pretty Kitty 
by Erin Wolf, Laurie & David Easterling © 11/3/2020 Little Chute, WI and Oak Ridge, TN

*Who doesn't write a song about a high maintenance cat filled with puns while trying to avoid 24/7 election news cycles?*

My cat knows I’m the second smartest 
Person in the room
She eats all my tuna sushi 
'Cause fish is brain food

We all know who’s in charge here
She treats me like her servant
Got a fur-midable cat-ittude
Yeah ya’ know she’s full of it

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooowwwwww
What a purrrrrr-sonality
She hunts all night, sleeps in sunlight
She knows she’s a pretty good kitty (pretty kitty)

Don’t fur-get she’s the Great Catsby
Never tells me where she’s been 
She leaves surprise gifts at my door
Howling & yowling to come in

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooowwwwww
What a purrrrrr-sonality
She hunts all night, sleeps in sunlight
She knows she’s a pretty good kitty (pretty kitty)

She’s the whole kit-n-caboodle
My fur-ever Cat-astrophe 
I’ve accepted her feline ways
And the pawprints on my fur-arri 

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooowwwwww
What a purrrrrr-sonality
She hunts all night, sleeps in sunlight
She knows she’s a pretty good kitty 

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooowwwwww
What a purrrrrr-sonality
She hunts all night, sleeps in sunlight
She knows she’s a pretty good kitty (pretty kitty)

Meow Pretty Kitty

Looking at this life that we all share
What a lot of things we have in common
No-one's getting out of here alive
No-one's going through without a struggle
And the same sun warms everyone

Chorus
And all of us were children
We all had games and dreams
And all of us are soldiers
As we fight our pasts and fears
And all of us were broken
And all of us can heal
And all of us is everything
And all these things,
And all these things I feel

Such a piece of work is every man
and every woman every
Heart and mind can fill a thousand books
All of us have seen more than a 
casual glance could understand
Every pool is deeper than it looks
And the same dawn calls to us all

Chorus

And none of us can make it on our own
We all have a need for
Someone to accept us as we are in our sweet hearts
But none of us are saints or saviours
No-one's gonna come and save us
From the bed that we keep making for our own selves
and time it always tells me that…

Chorus

All Of Us

"Last Day Of November" (#412, 201108)

Weren't no mobile telephones when she was growin' up
No VCRs no microwaves or credit cards
Kids respected mothers and the neighbors knew each other
And music seemed to come straight from the heart

Joe was 44 years old and Pat was 37
When they said their vows and they meant every word
Raised a couple kids up before he was called to heaven
She stuck around to help us here on earth

She's seen it all since '41 been watchin' as our world becomes
Stranger than her parents could have guessed
She's loved and lost and learned a lot 'bout what it means to walk with God
Somethin' tells me she's got no regrets

The one she loves is waitin' for her on the other side
But she's here with us tonight while we remember
The last day of November

This year's been a hard one we said goodbye to Loretta
In little old Point Pleasant West Virginia
Well times are tough but all things pass it changes like the weather
Might get better any minute

She's seen it all since '41 been watchin' as our world becomes
Stranger than her parents could have guessed
She's loved and lost and learned a lot 'bout what it means to walk with God
Somethin' tells me she's got no regrets

The one she loves is waitin' for her on the other side
But she's here with us tonight while we remember
The last day of November

Week 46a - Last Day Of November (201108)

Deanna Davis - Onward Now Love (original)

Copyright Kent Aitken & Erin Wolf 2020; Paris, France & Little Chute, WI, USA

*Co-write with Kent Aitken https://soundcloud.com/kent-aitken-386794022

After five years waiting, we're finally exhaling
Open doors to see what's outside
While I am ever the optimist, I have to admit
It felt like these were darker times

Tears flowing freely, crying on each other's shoulders
Holding on for help and hope
You never notice just how much you're holding
Until you get a moment of release

Overcome with waves of relief

Hear the bells ringing
Over people singing
Calling out with songs of cheer

Breathe with me again
Come together then
Let our hope conquer fear

It's going to be a long haul
There's work ahead for us all
Tomorrow just won't build itself

But for the moment
We just need some space to breathe
A million mile sigh of relief
For us to share

Not the only one who cares

Hear the bells ringing
Over people singing
Calling out with songs of cheer

Breathe with me again
Come together then
Let our hope conquer fear

Hear the bells ringing
Over people singing
Calling out with songs of cheer

Breathe with me again
Come together then
Let our hope conquer fear

Five Years Waiting (with Kent Aitken)

Copyright Erin Wolf 2020

hear the wind howling in the trees tonight
all this gale roaring in its flight
my true love has gone away, what am i to do
dawn is nigh, but it's coming without you

i called your name what felt like 1,000 times
as the air moved singing through the chimes
you left without a word, not a clue where you'd go
what in the hell has got you feeling so low

are you 
are you coming home

is this really how you wanna end it all
after everything we've made it through, standing tall
i stood by your side through thick and thin
but i guess in the end, nobody wins

don't worry about me, i'll be just fine
this time, darling, it was you who crossed the line
time for me to go and cauterize this wound
good luck whatever wherever you're marooned

don't
don't bother coming home

this is really how you wanna end it all
after everything we've made it through, standing tall
i stood by your side through thick and thin
but i guess in the end, nobody wins
nobody wins
nobody wins

One Guess (Don't Bother)

We spent two hundred thousand years 
in a close-knit tribal structure
Now I'm always longing for the warmth
Spend a couple aeons free 
From the clock or fences facing 
you might wanna cast those shackles off
Cause here we are...

Chorus:
In world that… no-one fits in
And we've all been there, 
feeling like we don't belong so when
I take a leap and… show how I'm different
Everyone gets it
And then anyone can see that we are...
wondering a world where we're all different
and we've all felt it
like there must be something wrong with me
But when I share how
I feel I don't fit in - everyone's been there 
And then anyone can see that we are one

Did you ever, growing up, 
feel like you were on the outside
In your school or in your family home?
Did you ever wonder why 
others seemed to know the ropes?
Did it feel like it was you alone?
Just wanna say, so many people felt that way,

Chorus

Rebellious humanity - we rarely sing in harmony
Fighting against that feeling that there's something wrong
but can't you see the irony?
I tell you it's not lost on me 
that what we have in common is that 
we all thought we were alone

Chorus

We Are One

on another episode of writing songs about TV shows...
I had the initial idea for this song about three weeks ago. I finally sat down and wrote it two weeks ago. And I finished recording it TODAY. FINALLY.

Lyrics:

You'd be surprised 'bout how heavy is the suitcase I brought
despite leaving behind 10 ton of hurt for a long shot.
A chameleon hiding out for its life, took your hand and you took mine.
We were just doing fine but I can't help to be myself back.

'Till I remember I left my ID back home,
I guess that I don't need it to say goodbye in your car.
Throw my arms to the wind, the soundtrack is your laugh
and I'm afraid I won't breathe it in enough.

Don't mind me, I'm just hoping my lungs will be cleaner
after one last night in Cartagena.

A baby deer learning how to walk in high heels,
I never knew what's like to start with the easiest thing.
Would you collect all the times I said no cause I was scared,
and light them into fireworks, hold me close and turn them into yes?

Oh mon amour, I left my ID back home,
I guess that I don't need it to say goodbye in your car.
Throw my arms to the wind, the soundtrack is your laugh
and if I look at your eyes, I can breathe it in enough.

Don't mind me, I'm just hoping my lungs will be cleaner
after one last night in Cartagena.

And just like in the movies you say
I've been here all along.
And I would stay with you here
until my days are gone.

'Till I remember I left my past back home,
and it's faster than me, so though it hurts I have to go.
"Don't you forget about me" you sound like paradise
cause for the first time I wanna say it back.

Don't mind me, I'm just hoping my lungs will be cleaner
after one last night in Cartagena.
(Throw my arms to the wind, the soundtrack is your laugh
and I look at your eyes to breathe it in enough)

last night in Cartagena

Nashville songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Godin Guitars Official Artist and Founder of www.songaweek.org.

His catalog of 500+ titles includes collaborations with hit writers Mark Narmore, Elliott Park, Steve Dean, and Pete & Pat Luboff, among others internationally from England to Australia.

Redding's music has landed cuts by numerous recording artists including Dan Whitehouse, Emma Gale, and David Easterling.

Week 46a - Last Day Of November (201108)

James Tristan Redding